Expert questions safety of water for troops in Iraq

March 17, 2006

WASHINGTON (AP) -- A Halliburton Co. expert warned in an internal report last year that the contractor had failed to ensure safe washing water for U.S. troops throughout Iraq, and the Pentagon's internal watchdog said Thursday it will investigate the matter. In a May 2005 report, Halliburton's water treatment manager in the war zone warned that troops and civilians in Iraq were left vulnerable to "mass sickness or death" by a contamination incident at the Ar Ramadi base. "Countrywide, all camps suffer to some extent from all or some of the deficiencies noted," said the May 2005 report, which was obtained by The Associated Press. Halliburton said it is confident the water its KBR subsidiary is paid to purify for U.S. troops in Iraq has been safe, and on Thursday it released a follow-up report, completed last month, that called into question some of the concerns its officials raised last year. "Since March 2004, KBR has not received any evidence of illness resulting from use of nonpotable water. There is therefore no evidence that the water posed a health risk," Halliburton's new report said. Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., who has been investigating the issue, released a letter Thursday disclosing that the Pentagon's inspector general is looking into the allegations about Halliburton's water purification work. Gary Comerford, spokesman for the Pentagon inspector general, said the review would be one of the first two by the inspector general's new office in Qatar.